We provisionally set the end date for our Readathon as Monday 11th April, so first day back after the Easter holidays, hoping that if students involved didn’t read much during the term weeks before we broke up, that the holidays would provide them with the time and opportunity to read & get sponsors.

Depending on our success rate and feedback from participants this year we will consider if we launch it earlier and have it last for longer, maybe not quite in sync with the Reading Ahead challenge which is the majority of the academic year, but perhaps again from World Book Day until the May Spring Bank Holiday instead. But we definitely intend to run it again in 2017 as we feel so strongly about the work Readathon do and want to do our best to help them in any way we can. We already annual support other literacy charities such as National Literacy Trust and Book Aid International – both providing books to children who otherwise wouldn’t have such access.

We did try hard to work in liaison with our Health & Social Care Team who do a lot of charity work themselves with students to help children in various contexts however the teachers were more interested in having their students work directly with hospital children and books than doing a sponsored read to support Readathon. Which although a noble idea may not be practically possible.

We will approach the ESOL staff who work closely with students who need to read more English books to improve and develop their English speaking and understanding skills. Some already participate in Reading Ahead but this may be a more incentivising scheme as it is helping others.

Rebecca Wilson, College Librarian, Huddersfield New College Library

http://huddnewcoll.ac.uk/